The Bureau of Industry and Security added 37 entities to the Entity List for a range of reasons, including for supplying controlled items to Iran, supporting China’s military modernization efforts, illegally providing items to Russia and contributing to surveillance efforts in China and Myanmar. The entities -- located in Belarus, Myanmar, China, Pakistan, Russia and Taiwan -- will be subject to a license requirement for all items subject to the Export Administration Regulations with varying license application review policies. BIS also modified 10 existing Chinese entries on the Entity List. The additions and changes take effect March 2.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is considering new export controls on certain machinery or lab equipment used by Chinese suppliers of precursor chemicals, which are used to produce fentanyl. BIS Undersecretary Alan Estevez, speaking during a Feb. 28 House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, said the agency is working with the Drug Enforcement Administration “to assess whether we can put restrictions” on those items. “So we're doing that kind of assessment, working both on the enforcement and my export administration side to see what we can do to crack down on that,” he said. Estevez was responding to a question from Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., who asked how the administration is working to “pressure” China to “combat financial flows from illicit fentanyl.”
The Biden administration should be doing more to harmonize its export controls and sanctions lists to more effectively penalize foreign companies that should be subject to strict trade restrictions, lawmakers said this week. Several Republicans suggested they plan to pursue legislation to mandate that the Bureau of Industry and Security’s Entity List be aligned with sanctions lists maintained by the Treasury Department, and at least one lawmaker said BIS should already have taken steps to formally do so.
One of the “most challenging” aspects of complying with U.S. and Western sanctions against Russia during the past year has been the service restrictions, which has created hurdles for companies trying to understand “exactly what types of activities fall within the scope of the covered services,” Sidley Austin said. In a Feb. 22 alert describing key compliance lessons from one year of Russia sanctions, the law firm said the service restrictions are “broad,” affecting everything from accounting to quantum computing, and not always carried out equally across various sanctions regimes.
The Commerce, State and Justice departments fined an American 3D printing company more than $25 million combined after it committed a range of export violations, including illegal shipments of aerospace technology and metal alloy powder to China and controlled design documents to Germany.
South Korean chip companies are dealing with significant “uncertainty” stemming from U.S. chip controls issued in October against China (see 2210070049) and are concerned about the looming expiration of a one-year authorization from the Commerce Department, a Korean economic security expert said last week. Although Bureau of Industry and Security Undersecretary Alan Estevez said the agency is working with Korean companies on potentially extending certain aspects of the authorization, details of those conversations remain unclear.
The Bureau of Industry and Security issued a temporary denial order last week suspending the export privileges of Russian company Radiotester OOO and owner Ilya Balakaev for illegally shipping “counterintelligence items” to Russia and North Korea. The denial order was released alongside a DOJ indictment charging Balakaev for smuggling devices used in foreign counterintelligence and military operations from the U.S. to Russia and “for the benefit” of Russia’s Federal Security Service and North Korea. Both Radiotester and Balakaev will be subject to a 180-denial order, barring either from exporting items or participating in transactions with items subject to the Export Administration Regulations.
The U.S. announced a new, sweeping set of export controls and sanctions last week to further hobble Russia on the one-year anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine, including additions to the Entity List, an expansion of industry sector restrictions on both Russia and Belarus, new export controls against Iran to address its drone transfers to Russia, and new financial sanctions against more than 100 people and entities. Many of the measures, which were announced alongside similar actions by U.S. G-7 allies, aim to “cut off the Russian defense industrial base and military from even low-technology consumer items,” the Bureau of Industry and Security said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security announced a host of new export control actions aimed at further limiting Russia from sustaining its war effort against Ukraine, including additions to the Entity List, an expansion of the agency’s industry sector restrictions on both Russia and Belarus and new export controls against Iran to address its drone transfers to Russia. The measures, effective Feb. 24, add 86 new entities to the Entity List; place additional restrictions on commercial, industrial and luxury goods; impose new license requirements on “low-technology” items destined to Iran; create a new Iran Foreign Direct Product Rule, and more.
The Bureau of Industry and Security announced a range of updates to its export regulations stemming from agreements made during the 2021 Wassenaar Arrangement plenary meeting, including revisions to the Commerce Control List and the license exceptions Adjusted Peak Performance (APP) and Strategic Trade Authorization (STA). The agency also made several corrections to the Export Administration Regulations, including to align the scope of its Significant Item (SI) license requirements throughout the EAR.